, 1887-07-28
SHORTHAND WRITER'S.
WHAT THEY MAKE AT THE NATIONAL
CAPITAL.
How the Business Is Donc.-somo Load
ing ographcrs-Privato Secretaries
OF senators-Newspnper Men and Short
hand work-Gossip About Public Men.


OF sonators-Newspapcr Men and Short
hand work-Gossip About Public Men.
Especial Correspondence
WASHINGTON, June 81.
There Is an army of shorthand writer's In
Washington, and the business increases hero
every year. The government departments
are full Of them, and there is scarcely room
which has not one or more Of them. Each Of
the cabinet ministers has special shorthand
man for his own work, and Of late years thero
Is scarcely q congressman or senator who does
not employ ore. The secretaries Of senator's
are paid by the government, and the wages
they receive Is six dollars a day Stenogra-
pliers In the departments have regular sala-
ries, ranging from thousand dollars up
wards, and II would not be an over estimate
to say that fully half million dollars Is pail
out every year here for stenographc work.
Dennis Murphy, the man who for gensr.
alton has reported the United States Senate,
gets 81, 600 year for the job, and each oe
the five official reporters of the house Of rep.
resentatives is paid 5000 year. Tlll
clerks Of the committees of the house ani
senate are usually shorthand men, and they
receive salaries Of from 81 800 to g., 500 \
year. The presidents stenographer has au
uIIluui stuTy OI Sl,oDU SECRETARY tulrCnllU9
gets 81, 500, Secretary Endicott's $1,000, and
the man who makes pot hooks for Villas
81, 800.
Many OF these private secretaries are on
duty the year round, and those In the depart
ments have one months vacation, which they
usually take in the summer The stenogra-
piers to senator's follow them to their homes,
and not a few of the leading statesmen carry
their stenographers with them wherever
they go. 49,
A number of the members of the lower
house employ stenographers at their own ex.
pense, and many of them have these come to
them in the evening, during the session, when
they dictate answers to their letters, and
sometimes prepare their speeches, delivering
them first to the stenographer and then re-
vising his manuscript. Such work Is, as a
rule, not very well paid, and the average
congressman jews his stenographer down to
the lowest possible point. Such work Is very
hard, for the congressman must have his
mail written out by hand and not copied on
the typewriter. If he sends 1t home In print
his constituents think they are receiving a
circular, and in the other case they do not
know but the congressman has written the
letter himself .*.
The lawyers Of Washington, as rule, use
shorthand men, and the most noted court re-
porters here are Johns, Easton and Clephane.
Each Of these makes salary which approxi-
mates that Of supreme court judge, and it
is my remembrance that the Star Route trials
paid the reporters 800, 900 for the job. The
Guiteau trial was also profitable. and cne
man named Alexander received $4,000 for
reporting it. The leading law reporters have
business here, and the business appears to be
as legitimate and as prominent as that Of the
law itself.
There are different grades among the stem
ographers, and the best employ amanuenses
to help them. They redictate their notes to
these and have them copy them out for them.
Many man who can write accurately loses
his head when 200 words are given him. The
200 word men take down the work from their
employers and get the 100 word men to tran
scribe 1t for about one-tenth the price which
they receive. A number of these amanuenses
81 for n column of The Record, and might be
able to write at least 100 words minute.
**4
There are few women stenographers at
Washington, til ,ugh there number scattered
over the country who make good wages; and
II sister of Miss Sprague, the author of "rhe
Earnest Triher," left Washington some years
ago and opened stenographer's office in New
York. She makes now, 1 understand, s., 600
a year. There is Miss Palmer somewhere
in New York state who is said to make SS, ,00O
a year, aud Miss Ballentne whose income
is said to be $1,000, The women who do
stenographic work in the departments here
are very few, though there are some. Many,
however, do typewriting, and the click of the
typewriter has become as familiar as the
scratch of the pen. Remiugtons and cali
graphs are used by hundreds, and there are
upwards of a thousand in the various depart
ments. M##
A great deal of the literary work of Wash
ington is done with stenographic aid. Sunset
Cox dictated large part of his "Three De-
cades of Federal Legislaton:" Blaine die
tated some of his "Twenty Years of Con.
gress," and Bancroft uses n stenographer reg
ularly as lie pegs away at his history.
called on Judge Kelley day or so ago and
found him debating some literary matter
to his stenographer, and as for Spofford, the
librarian, he uses stenographer regularly
and can talk as smoothly as he writes. The
newspaper men use stcnographers here to q
considerable extent during the session, and
this letter is being dictated to one. Ben
Perley Poore writes his letters with the aid
OF a stenographer. George Alfred Town
send keeps one continuously employed, and
he dictates about 5000 or C,0O0 words every
morning. A good stenographer for newspa.
per work should by oil means be accurate,
and he should understand how to get up mat
ter for the press. He should be almost Us
good a newspaper man as the correspondent
who dictates to him, and should be able to fix
up che matter and send it OFF without the
correspondent seeing it. Such stenographers
are, however, very scarce.
**m
Speaking OF typewriting, l know q num-
Der of correspondents who prefer the type
writer to the stenograpler, ard unless one
has the best Of stenographes.s the typewriter
Is by far the more satisfactd,.xy "A fast type
writer can take from fifty to.t',xty words q
minute from dictation and thS. care some who
claim that they can take seventy uhd eighty
words minute. Fifty words !. minute is,
however, 5000 words an hour, and this is
equal to about two columns of the ordinary
newspaper, and is as fast as any man ought to
dictate and faster than most men can. The
beauty OF the typewriter is that you have
your manuscript in hand for correction the
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